Art and debate: the Gezi phenomena

First published in Today’s Zaman by Rumeysa Kiger, Istanbul, 25 June 2013

The Gezi protests, which have shaken Turkey for the past three weeks, have stirred up controversy in İstanbul art circles over the question of how these events will be reflected in the city’s numerous art galleries.

Some artists argue that it is inevitable that such major events will be reflected in the artwork created following them, while others are worried that the commercial art market will seek to exploit the issue and suggest that this should be discouraged from the very beginning.

Contemporary artist Hera Büyüktaşçıyan, who focuses on issues such as identity, memory and otherness in her work, says that these past few weeks have transformed every aspect of the protesters’ lives in addition to everyone’s way of seeing and experiencing the public sphere, both individually and socially.

“The strength of the whole process has let creativity come to such a great level that it has crossed the borders of all means of artistic production and has become ‘art’ itself. Obviously this will have effects, and it will influence many, many artists’ ways of creating their art. This will have varying results based on their own experiences,” she said.

“After witnessing the strength of the whole resistance, I think it is necessary to question the role of art, one’s own way of seeing and approaching art production and how an artist should position himself or herself after such a life experience. I suppose from now on, this issue will be open to criticism, which I think is a natural process — to question things and the whole system of art. However, on the other hand, there is also the fact that many artists’ work, research and preferred subjects were based on social, cultural and political issues long before this movement,” Büyüktaşçıyan noted, adding that during the days of the protests, many artists saw things in real life that they had previously only researched and thought about.

Video artist Zeyno Pekünlü, who focuses on matters such as nationality, citizenship, manhood and womanhood in her work, says she has always believed there is a difference between using politics as subject matter in one’s art and one’s art being influenced by one’s own political stance.

“During the Gezi Park resistance, for many people the distance they had from active politics evaporated very quickly. The days of resistance were days that were faster, more surprising and fascinating than art. I believe the important thing now is to ask if it is possible to ask a new question, bring a new suggestion, create a new debate or contribute with a new critical ground to these ‘weird’ days through art, rather than asking where or how the artworks related to the Gezi resistance should be showcased,” she stressed.

Çapuling

Chapulling (Turkish: çapuling) is a neologism originating in the 2013 protests in Turkey, coined from Prime Minister Erdoğan's use of the term çapulcu (roughly translated to "looters") to describe the protestors.

The protests started with the occupation of the Istanbul Gezi Park by a small group protesting against the demolition of a symbolic park in the center of the City, finally it became a mass demonstration with a general strike on June 17th 2013.

The word Çapuling quickly caught on, adopted by the demonstrators and online activists, and became a viral video.

Many took the concept further by integrating the unique nature of the demonstrations and defined it as "to act towards taking the democracy of a nation to the next step by reminding governments of their reason for existence in a peaceful and humorous manner."

The Çapuling section of InEnArt describes and reflects the visual culture, humor and irony of the peaceful protestors (the Çapulcu) as it developed in many forms in Turkey during 2013.

The authors of InEnArt will publish regular one phenomen of the Çapuling Culture: e.g. the Duran Adam (Standing Man), the penguin, gas festival, the woman in red...

Urban Voices

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